Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan will invest $3 billion into curing all diseases by the end of this century

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have announced the next phase of their philanthropy efforts: curing all diseases in the lifetime of their 10-month-old daughter, Max.

At a press event in San Francisco on Wednesday, the couple said they will invest $3 billion into research on curing the world's diseases through their philanthropy organization, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

"By investing in science today, we hope to build a future in which all of our children can build long and rewarding lives," Priscilla Chan said.

Zuckerberg said their organization is already "building a world-class engineering team" to help scientists and medical experts research diseases.

As part of the investment, a $600 million research center in San Francisco called the Biohub will be built in partnership with Stanford, the University of California, and Berkeley. Neurobiologist Cori Bargmann will become the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's new president of science.

AP

The $3 billion will come from Zuckerberg's personal shares in Facebook — a sum worth more than $45 billion. He and Chan committed to giving away 99% of their wealth through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in December 2015.

Prior to Wednesday's announcement, the couple's organization led investments in an African coding startup called Andela and Byju, an Indian education startup that teaches kids subjects like math and science with a mobile app.